If You Liked The Shawshank Redemption, Watch These Next
Finished The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and want more of the same? These 20 movies are what its fans watched next, ranked by how often people who liked it also liked these. Like The Shawshank Redemption, most of them are drama, crime.
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20 titles · updated 3rd October 2026
1.Cool Hand Luke(1967)
7.7DramaCrimeAlso drama and crime
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded…
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4.Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile(2019)
7.0DramaCrimeAlso drama and crime
A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
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5.The Green Mile(1999)
8.5FantasyDramaCrimeAlso drama and crime
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
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6.The Informer(2019)
6.5DramaCrimeThrillerAlso drama and crime
In New York, former convict Pete Koslow, related to the Polish mafia, must deal with both Klimek the General, his ruthless boss, and the twisted ambitions of two federal agents, as he tries to survive and protect the lives of his loved ones.
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7.GoodFellas(1990)
8.5DramaCrimeAlso drama and crime
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
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8.Kiss of the Spider Woman(1985)
7.0DramaAlso drama
The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs. The other is Molina, a gay window-dresser who fills their lonely nights by spinning romantic fantasies drawn from memories of old movies.
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9.Papillon(2017)
7.3AdventureCrimeDramaAlso crime and drama
Henri “Papillon” Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld, is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, where he forges a strong friendship with Louis Dega, a counterfeiter who needs his protection.
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10.The Mustang(2019)
6.9DramaAlso drama
While participating in a rehabilitation program training wild mustangs, a convict at first struggles to connect with the horses and his fellow inmates, but he learns to confront his violent past as he soothes an especially feisty horse.
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11.South Central(1992)
6.7CrimeDramaAlso crime and drama
During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon his release, Bobby returns home to find that his young son, Jimmie, has joined the Deuces, his old crew. Tensions rise as Bobby…
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12.The Valachi Papers(1972)
6.5CrimeDramaAlso crime and drama
When Joe Valachi has a price put on his head by Don Vito Genovese, he must take desperate steps to protect himself while in prison. An unsuccessful attempt to slit his throat puts him over the edge to break the sacred code of silence.
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14.Siberian Education(2013)
6.8DramaCrimeAlso drama and crime
The story of a gang of children growing up in a community of banished criminals, in a forgotten corner of the former Soviet Union. This community rejects the world outside. The only law it obeys… is its own. Against this backdrop two best friends, Kolyma and Gagarin, gradually become fierce enemies as they find…
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15.Birdman of Alcatraz(1962)
7.5DramaCrimeHistoryAlso drama and crime
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education,…
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17.Killer: A Journal of Murder(1996)
5.9DramaAlso drama
Carl Panzram is sent to Leavenworth Prison for burglary. While there, he is brutally beaten by a guard. Neophyte guard Henry Lesser feels sympathy for Panzram, befriends him, and gets him to write his life story. Lesser learns that Panzram's past is much more violent than he thought, but also that he's capable of…
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18.The Unforgivable(2021)
7.4DramaCrimeAlso drama and crime
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
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19.Midnight Express(1978)
7.4DramaCrimeAlso drama and crime
Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".
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20.Lawless(2012)
7.1CrimeDramaWesternAlso crime and drama
In 1931, the Bondurant brothers of Franklin County, Virginia, run a multipurpose backwoods establishment that hides their true business — bootlegging. Middle brother Forrest is the brain of the operation; older Howard is the brawn, and younger Jack, the lookout. Though the local police have taken bribes and left the…
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